“Donkey Kong Country Returns” for the Wii brought back great memories of playing this classic series on the Super Nintendo. “Tropical Freeze” for the Wii U expands upon the fun of the 2010 game.

A new group of baddies, the Snowmads, have taken over the island ­— and ruining Donkey Kong’s birthday in the process. But our heroes aren’t having any of that, and it’s up to them to take back their home. The plot is similar to the Tiki takeover in “Returns.”

In fact, “Tropical Freeze” plays very much like the Wii game. Players control Donkey Kong to smack, roll into and hop on enemies while collecting “KONG” letters, puzzle pieces, and plenty of bananas and banana coins. Diddy Kong is back with his jetpack to hover short distances, and Dixie Kong makes her long-awaited return, using her long ponytail to float upward. Fan favorite Cranky Kong joins the team, allowing players to hop along spikes and pointed-enemies.

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Levels contain secret areas reached only by having specific partners onscreen, encouraging players to play with all of them, and most barrels let you choose between them. It’s a nice fan service to have Dixie Kong and Cranky Kong as playable characters, but it’s hard not to choose Diddy Kong who is still the best partner to have.

Levels are much bigger than in “Returns” with a lot going on. Each one plays differently and have you swinging on vines, hanging onto foliage, putting out wildfires, swimming underwater, blasting from barrels and much more. New dynamic camera angles bring a refreshing perspective to the series, and there’s rarely a dull moment. Yes, the minecart and barrel rocket portions remain trial and error, but they aren’t too frustrating this time around. The timed bonus areas are mostly recycled and could have used some freshening up.

Retro Studios did an amazing job in the graphics department. The background art and details make each level feel alive. Composer David Wise, who worked on the SNES games’ music, returns to create some of the best tunes you’ll probably hear this year from a video game.

Difficulty-wise, I would say “Tropical Freeze” is a little bit easier than “Returns” when it comes to completing the story. Checkpoints are spread out decently throughout each level, and you’ll have no worries of getting a Game Over screen. There are a ton of opportunities to gain extra lives, and you’ll be showered in banana coins to purchase even more of them along with power-ups like temporary invincibility and extra health hearts. Boss fights are excellent and not overwhelming. Collecting all those precious KONG letters and puzzle pieces, on the other hand, will be a brutal challenge for completionists.

“Tropical Freeze” can also be with two players, and time trials give speedrunners the opportunity to cruise through levels as fast as possible and brag about their best times to others online.

A couple of minor things: Load times aren’t bad — but not great either. Each level takes around 10 seconds each to enter and exit. Since they’re big it’s not a big deal, but it would have been nice to have a few seconds shaved off on each end. Also, playing with the GamePad controller is kind of lame since the touchscreen is completely blank if playing on the television (playing on the controller leaves the TV screen blank). Hopefully, this isn’t a sign of things to come for future Nintendo titles.

Despite that, “Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze” is still a fun platformer and solid addition to a popular and successful franchise.